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2012 US Election
If you are voting this November (I can't), please, educate yourself about issues, or do not vote on them, ignorant voting leaves us with ignorant leaders. Stop demanding instant gratification and REALIZE that the issues our government is dealing with have been snowballing since the day the Constitution was signed. During an election, question everyone's motives. Ask Questions. Who stands to gain from something you're voting on. Is it you? Will it hurt you, somehow? Time to double check, and crack the books. Either side of an issue can make you feel sympathy; advertising is great like that. Ask yourself why you feel the need to vote the way you are set on voting. If you aren't 100% certain you are right about your facts, perhaps it's time to do some quick homework. Please, don't make important decisions ignorantly. DO NOT take the words of people who have a financial stake in the issue with a grain of salt. They have a financial stake to defend, their words are going to be biased and hiding their motives. California Proposal 37 * Ballotpedia on Prop 37 * Wikipedia on Prop 37 and the rest of California's propositions, check for your state! * * California is coming up to vote in this election, and something on the ballots is Prop 37. I just watched a chairman of Stonyfield lie through his teeth on Real Time with Bill Maher. He is covering up his motives, which are to drive up demand for so-called "organic" food, and get people to stop buying 'normal' food, by labeling it GMO. The problem is, the general population is pretty dumb, especially about Genetically Modified Foods. There are some companies doing awful things with GMO, like Mansanto, but the Stonyfield chairman used Mansanto as a man-in-the-middle to be a scapegoat for their cause. Preaching about the anticompetitive things that Mansanto is doing with their GMO efforts, and ignoring the rest of the world's efforts to genetically modify food to be heartier and more resilient, and produce more. In addition, the chairman brought up the herbicide 2-4-D, and said it was a component of Agent Orange. It is. But it's not the one that was proven dangerous. That's meant to cause fear, associating it with a weapon of war, like Agent Orange. The chairman complained about how weeds have become more resilient because we have to use more herbicide, to kill the weeds that have become suited to survive. This is why science rotates the herbicides used. When a plant becomes immune to the first one, it has forgotten how to be immune to the one only its ancestors were exposed to. He claimed that it requires ever-more herbicide to keep the weeds in check. I don't know myself, but that sounds pretty stupid. In addition, he did nothing to explain how 'organic' farming does ANYTHING to change how herbicides have become ineffective. He quoted stats that claimed there is more pollution since GM crops were allowed. About the same time 'organic' farming took off. Correlation is not causation, but perhaps the increase in pollution has something to do with the ineffectiveness of the 'natural' herbicides the 'organic' farmers use. Then they go on to blame the increased peanut allergies and shit like that, on environmental effects from these herbicides. The harsh reality there is we've been allowing people with peanut allergies, who would have died off before reaching breeding age, to live. And the genes that increased sensitivities to things like peanuts and wheat are passed on, and strengthened. Additionally, science is constantly improving, and we're able to classify illnesses more accurately. Wheat allergy is a recent phenomena, we were unaware of it until fairly recently, and diagnosing it is difficult, still. Most diagnosis is self-diagnosis, because the tests for it are too expensive. It's fucking evolution and science, you morons. We have more cancer for exactly the same reasons. That is not to say there are NO environmental influences. I'm just it is genetics. Environment can cause mutation of our genes and cause cancer, and certainly could flip something in our DNA to cause problems. It's far likelier, however, that we're just guilty of allowing the weak to survive, when evolution is about survival of the fittest. No, I am not saying we should let people die, I'm saying we should acknowledge the reality of that issue, blaming the wrong thing. To make matters worse, this guy is complaining about their campaign being outspent (can't verify that, myself), and he desperately needs your support and money to help fight the cause, because he is ONLY looking out for all of us. I kind of want to puke, the micro-expressions of self-satisfaction and getting away with selling your story were ALL over his face. Take the initiative and educate yourself. Please, the world is counting on us all to make properly informed decisions. Perhaps GM foods are bad for us. Perhaps they aren't as crucial as we're lead to believe. But perhaps they are critical. Why take a chance?